Educational Programs at the Johnson Museum

Educational Programs at the Johnson

For college faculty

For school teachers

For families

Explore a Han Dynasty Chinese Tomb

Buddhist Art in Asia online tour

OMNI China handheld tour for children

Johnson Museum Club

Arranging a tour

Volunteer Opportunities

Calendar of lectures, tours,
workshops, and other events

2009 Service to Campus report (PDF)

2009 Service to Community report (PDF)

The Johnson Museum is more than a distinctive modern building with a global collection, changing exhibitions, and an active schedule of educational programs; it can also be a dynamic extension of the classroom.

Images and objects are powerful vehicles for learning, at any level or age group. Art opens our eyes to beauty and our minds to new ways of thinking about the world, ourselves, and each other. Art compels us to question, to reflect, and to make judgments. Above all, art helps us understand the richness, diversity, and complexity of human experience at any level of learning.

There are educational programs tailored to the needs of the three groups the Johnson Museum serves: Cornell and other college-level students; school children in Tompkins County and throughout the region; and members of the community.

A Teaching Collection

Did you know that the Museum has an outstanding print collection of over 15,000 works, that spans the 15th century to the present? It includes prints by the Old and Modern Masters—Durer, Piranesi, Rembrandt, Goya, Whistler, Picasso, Matisse, and Andy Warhol, to name a few. We also have extensive holdings in the area of photography with images by Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz, Margaret Bourke-White, and others.

The Asian collection is among the best of any university art museum and features ceramics, devotional objects, paintings, and decorative arts from China, Japan, India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Korea. Framed by spectacular views, the Asian galleries are beautifully designed and offer ideal spaces for contemplation and discussion.

An entire floor of the Museum is dedicated to the American collection of painting and sculpture, spanning Pre-Columbian civilizations to the 20th century. Similarly, the European collection offers ancient and medieval art, Renaissance, Baroque, and modern works.

The collection of African art features masks, sculpture, jewelry, and textiles largely from Central and West Africa.

In addition to our permanent collection galleries, the Museum also offers a number of changing exhibitions each year and programs that offer additional opportunities for teaching with art. (Click here for the list of current exhibitions.) For more information about the offerings of the Museum's education department—for Cornell and other college students, for schools, for families and for the community—please contact Cathy Rosa Klimaszewski at 607 254-4627 or crk7@cornell.edu, or call the Museum receptionist at 607 255-6464.